The increased autism rates announced in early April have stirred the autistic community, prompting a heated debate that searches for the cause of this phenomenon. Through Facebook, I found an online article written about Temple Grandin's response to this recent event. Temple is arguably the most recognizable autistic individual on the planet today. She was concerned about the increase of severely autistic individuals but stressed that autism diagnosis is not very precise. What really stood out to me in this article is that Temple stated that there are negative reactions to "too much" autism awareness. She argued that a childhood obsession held by children on the spectrum could be very useful later in life when it comes time to find a job. If autistic children face too much autism awareness exposure, then their interest could be directed towards the autism itself. Temple argues that she would rather have the kids "fixate" on something that could be useful as a career later in life. I have to admit that I never thought of that before and will strive harder to balance my writing projects between my fiction and writing to raise autism awareness. To read the article referenced in this blog post, click here.
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